County calls to the bullpen for demolition help

May 27, 2014

LISBON -An additional contractor has been hired by Columbiana County commissioners to help with a housing demolition project that must be completed by May 31.

Commissioners hired Yarian Brothers Construction of New Waterford to demolish 12 homes that were among those properties to be razed by X-treme Demolition of Wellsville, which was awarded the contract to do all of the initial demolition work.

The demolition program is being funded with money awarded the county by the state, and county Development Director Tad Herold said the program requires the initial phase of work to be completed by May 31. He said through no fault of its own, X-treme did not appear able to meet the deadline, which is why they decided to hire Yarian Brothers to assist.

"The contract is what the contract is," he said.

Commissioners originally received $500,000 from the state in 2013 to use for demolishing abandoned and dilapidated homes, and X-treme, as the lowest bidder, was hired to raze 49 homes around the county. The 12 homes to be demolished by Yarian Brothers, which was the second lowest bidder, are from this group.

Dan Galeoti of X-treme Demolition said that in his defense he was not told about the May 31 deadline until after he had been awarded the contract by the person who was in charge of the program at the time. Galeoti also said his demolition efforts were hampered by a long, cold winter, followed by a rainy spring.

The state made an additional $30,000 available in late 2013, which commissioners matched with $30,000 in county funds. The additional $60,000 enabled commissioners to add another 23 homes, which were divided between X-treme and Stan Cunningham Excavating.

The county has since received $28,000 more from the state, representing unspent money returned to the state from other counties that received funding. Herold expects to be able to demolish another five homes or so with this money, but the work does not have to be completed until September. These demolitions are being split by Yarian Brothers and Falcon Construction of Austintown, which also bid for some of the work.

In another matter, commissioners have awarded the contract for the Ohio Department of Transportation waterline project to Utility Contracting Inc., which submitted the lowest bid at $473,333.

The county is extending water service from County Line Road in Center Township to the new ODOT garage under construction on U.S. Route 30, a distance of 1.3 miles.